We've taken a common web design term and translated it into Japanese and back to English a few times using a translator tool—rendering it unrecognizable. All you have to do is work out what the original words were!

The first to answer correctly will win a free SitePoint ebook! You can answer as many times as you like.

If it's proving too hard, we'll start to drop clues, so keep tabs on this thread. The plan is to leave this thread open for several days at least, or perhaps a week. (Let's see how it goes.)

OK, so this is resulting translation you have to "untranslate":

Formal performance

Good luck!

[edit]Clue1: the original is also two words. This is a standard technical term, quite familiar to web developers.

Clue2: think in terms of established names for various aspects of web design—something you'd expect to be able to look up in an index, for example.

Clue3: an example of a common web design term would be "Responsive design"—terms that are part of our common web vocabulary.

Clue4: I apologise for stringing you all along.

Clue5: this term is a common expression used by programmers on a regular basis.[/edit]

OK guys, we have a winner (see post #36). The answer was "regular expression". Yes, indeed, running that term back and forth through the translator produced "formal performance". We hope to run a few more of these competetions, so stay tuned.

xhtmlcoder
—
2013-02-05T10:55:04Z —
#2

Perhaps "Web Standards." though unlikely as would be "Site optimization.". I was tempted to put either; "Hello Dear." or "Lemon Juice." or "I am a SEO Guru!" or even "Nice Post".

ralphm
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2013-02-05T12:04:22Z —
#3

[ot]

xhtmlcoder said:

I was tempted to put either; "Hello Dear." or "Lemon Juice." or "I am a SEO Guru!" or even "Nice Post".

Be assured, it's a well known and respected term in web design, familiar to any coder. [/ot]

molona
—
2013-02-05T13:43:06Z —
#4

So we write our answer here so everyone knows how we mess up... or if we are a genious?

xhtmlcoder
—
2013-02-05T15:08:35Z —
#5

I try again Ralph: "HTML5 Sucks!", I presume were are looking for 2 words. In English it would be; feedback, review and testing of the project, e.g. QA. Though I suspect you mangled it much more than that and perhaps when you put in the letters upside down it didn't work as expected.

kohoutek
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2013-02-05T18:52:42Z —
#6

[ot]Iye, wakaremasen. Hakkiri wakaranu ga shinpai surukotowanai.

Definitely watched too much Shogun lately.[/ot]

Shaun
—
2013-02-05T19:29:54Z —
#7

ralph_m said:

Formal performance

Tuxedo Cache! YATTA!

hudey123
—
2013-02-05T21:27:32Z —
#8

ralph_m said:

Lost in Translation!

Here is a simple challenge for you all.

We've taken a common web design term and translated it into Japanese and back to English a few times using a translator tool—rendering it unrecognizable. All you have to do is work out what the original words were!

The first to answer correctly will win a free SitePoint ebook! You can answer as many times as you like.

If it's proving too hard, we'll start to drop clues, so keep tabs on this thread. The plan is to leave this thread open for several days at least, or perhaps a week. (Let's see how it goes.)

OK, so this is resulting translation you have to "untranslate":

Good luck!

Strict Markup??

matthewv789
—
2013-02-05T23:44:23Z —
#9

Well formed?

roastgoat
—
2013-02-06T00:40:13Z —
#10

Fixed Width. Next!

lindydobbins
—
2013-02-06T00:41:05Z —
#11

Posted a guess on Facebook, but then realized this was in the forum. I'm guessing "Best Practice."

dnelson
—
2013-02-06T02:08:24Z —
#12

Two guesses...

1.) "Responsive design" - if only because I'm reading Ethan Marcotte's book and have RWD on the brain. Plus, it was my first guess and I'm sticking with it.

2.) "Style Sheet" - which I tend to forget is in fact two words.

ralphm
—
2013-02-06T03:04:08Z —
#13

Great guesses, guys. Keep them coming.

dnelson said:

"Responsive design" ... "Style Sheet"

That's the sort of term we're looking for. Common terms to describe familiar aspects of web design.

Kristjan
—
2013-02-06T05:17:12Z —
#14

I thought it was "Fixed Width" at first but I'm leaning towards "Aspect Ratio" now.

Fixed Width

Aspect Ratio

chilli11
—
2013-02-06T07:13:00Z —
#15

I am thinking "Wire Frames / Framing"

Tkauran
—
2013-02-06T10:31:24Z —
#16

Progressive Enhancement?

D_Dee
—
2013-02-06T11:14:55Z —
#17

Event handler

amarapali
—
2013-02-06T11:25:28Z —
#18

well organization

molona
—
2013-02-06T13:32:23Z —
#19

To be honest, I don't have a clue but I will try to write one or two ideas

1) semantic markup

2) Strict doctype

xhtmlcoder
—
2013-02-06T14:08:24Z —
#20

I already known it isn't "Browser testing.", or standard practice, I've mentioned "UX." before and also "Konichi wa." Ralph. I presume this 'technical term' only occurs in Australian web design books. Though when we say 'coder' we are meaning markup, such as site structure and style sheets rather than back-end programming.